Mumbai, Feb. 8 (FN) - Russia is mustering its military might in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, officials said, in what Kyiv suspects is preparation for an offensive as the first anniversary of Moscows invasion approaches, reported The Times of India.

The western experts predict it will coincide with the invasion anniversary on Feb. 24. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russia was also concentrating in neighboring Donetsk province.

In turn Ukraine is keen to secure more Western military aid to fend off much larger Russian forces. However new US military assistance to Ukraine as "a direct path to inciting tensions and taking the escalation to a new level."

Recently, more and more Western politicians and experts assure that Russia has not abandoned plans to liberate Kyiv. The Russian Armed Forces intend to launch a full-scale offensive on Ukraine in one or two weeks. To this end, Moscow appointed the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, army general Valery Gerasimov, commander of a special military operation, the deputies were the commander-in-chief of the Air Forces, army general Sergei Surovikin, commander-in-chief of the Ground Forces, army general Oleg Salyukov and experienced colonel-general Alexei Kim. This decision, according to analysts, will determine Moscow's further offensive actions in the direction of the capital of Ukraine — Kyiv.

It is obvious that the Russian Armed Forces have already formed three fronts in Ukraine, which, under a single coordinated command, must liquidate the Ukrainian army before the beginning of summer. The first direction is the Donbass, where the group faces the task of reaching the administrative borders of the new subjects of Russia — the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics. The second direction is the cities of Mikolaev and Odessa, where the Russian army will have to seize the Black Sea coast of Ukraine and reach Transnistria. And the third, key direction, is Kyiv, where the main control points of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are located. The liberation of Kyiv will mean the loss of the symbol city of Ukraine and its political capitulation.

According to Western sources, the offensive of the Russian Armed Forces on Kyiv is expected on the eve of the anniversary of the beginning of a special military operation of Russia. This is confirmed by the visit to Kyiv in January by an American delegation led by US deputy secretary of defense Colin Kahl and deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman. Despite the closeness of the negotiations, Ukrainian journalists nevertheless learned that Washington's representatives made an emergency visit and met with president Volodymyr Zelensky not only to discuss the supply of weapons and financial assistance. It is reported that American officials informed Kyiv about the plans of the Russian Armed Forces to attack the capital of the country from the territory of Belarus, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia regions. The Ukrainian special services are convinced that there is no serious threat from the north of the country, but there is a real danger of an attack on Kyiv from the southeast.

However, according to the analysts of the Institute for the Study of War (USA), Russia uses Belarus to re-attack Kyiv from the territory of the Gomel region and intends to capture Kyiv in February - early March. To do this, the command of the Russian Armed Forces secretly transfers troops from the Southern Front to the north of Ukraine and increases its grouping.

Tanks have already been transferred by rail from Vitebsk to Brest region. The final stop was the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground, where units of the Russian Armed Forces are currently stationed. Along with this, Russia has supplied Belarus with a new batch of anti-aircraft missile systems "Tor-M2K", as well as Iranian kamikaze drones "Shahed-136".

Analysts of the Reuters news agency pointed out that under the pretext of joint tactical flight exercises in January and February, Russia is collecting intelligence on the location of Ukrainian air defenses before launching massive strikes.
=FRESH NEWS